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The mountains were steep and not exactly small—hence the moniker mountain—they were also the home of two national forests. Nevertheless, the place boasted ski resorts, ghost-town hotels, abandoned-mine tours, hiking, mountain climbing, and jeeping—whatever that was. Wikipedia had failed to elaborate. There was even an old narrow-gauge train that ran between Durango and Silverton and offered all sorts of touristy tours.
However, from where Matt stood, the hills were not alive but deserted. And nothing, anywhere, looked like the place he was hoping to find.
They came to an extended plain where they could all walk their horses in a line. This was unfortunate, since that gave the As an audience. Something that had been sadly lacking in Matt.
“I don’t know why y’all have to ride all day like yer Billy the Boy or somethin’,” Ashleigh announced.
“It hasn’t been all day,” Gina said. “We stopped at noon.”
“For sandwiches and chips.” Ashleigh’s nose wrinkled. “Outside.”
“It’s called a picnic. Part of the ambiance.”
“Part of the what?”
Lady Belle sidestepped, throwing her big ass into Ashleigh’s horse. The girl fell blessedly silent while she righted her mount. Then Ashleigh opened her mouth, no doubt to complain about something else, but thankfully Derek jumped in.
“Who’s Billy the Boy?”
“Oh, that outlaw.” Ashleigh flipped her manicured fingers toward the just-beginning-to-darken sky. “You know. The brother of that guy on Two and a Half Men played him in the movie.”
“Jon Cryer has a brother?” Derek appeared as confused as Matt. Who was Jon Cryer and how on earth did one come up with two and a half men?
“No! The other guy. He tried to shoot his wife. Drinks a lot, just like his character on the TV.”
Derek glanced at Matt, who shrugged.
“Not shoot, dumbass.” In this instance, Matt had to agree with Melda’s assessment, and the expression on Ashleigh’s face at her new nickname was priceless. “I think it was stab. Maybe strangle. You’re talkin’ about Charlie Sheen, whose bro is Emilio Estevez.”
“How can they be brothers if they don’t even have the same last name?” Amberleigh wondered.
“Shit happens,” Mel said. “And he didn’t play Billy the Boy. It was Billy the Kid.”
“Oh!” Derek straightened in the saddle, wincing a little at the movement, which made Matt feel a whole helluva lot better about his own sore ass. “Young Guns. Got it.”
“You really wanna see a great horse chase,” Mel continued, “you gotta watch Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Now they rode all day, all night, all the fucking time.” He glanced at his wife and together they announced: “Who are those guys?”
Now Matt was even more confused. “You just said they were Butch and Sundance.”
Mel and Melda stared at him in shock. “You’ve never seen the damn movie?” Mel asked.
“I … uh…” Hell. Matt rarely watched movies. He was too immersed in the past.
“I’ve never seen the damn movie,” Gina said.
“But … but…” Mel’s Santa face crumpled as if the last known reindeer had just fallen off a roof and died. “It’s a western.”
“The best damn western of all time,” Melda agreed.
“This…”—Gina spread her hand, palm extended, fingers splayed, then swooshed her arm in a half circle, indicating the panorama before them—“is the best western of all time.”
For several minutes everyone observed the view. Purple mountains still capped with white, the grass gone evergreen in the dusk, the sky divided into bands of azure, gold, fuchsia, and burnt umber. The first bird they’d seen since morning—thanks to the As—even flew across the landscape just for them.
Matt glanced over to find Gina watching him instead of the horizon. When their eyes met, he experienced another moment of camaraderie that brought home to him again how much he missed his mommy. No one had understood him like Nora. He’d begun to believe that no one ever could.
“Just ’cause outlaws rode all night doesn’t mean we can.” Derek’s voice had taken on the distinct tenor of a tired three-year-old. From the panic on his dad’s face, Matt figured the kid would be pounding his head on the ground and wailing if he didn’t get some food and a nap real soon.
“We aren’t going to ride all night,” Gina said. “Just until we reach that ridge.” She pointed to a bump in the landscape that Matt knew from experience looked closer than it was. They’d be making camp at twilight. Nothing Matt hadn’t d
